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We needn't be too cynical. In its long history, Nintendo's experimental feelings have been frequent - and frequently healthy and fruitful. Also, Nintendo's quality control being what it is, the games themselves are usually good. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, the sixth in a curious series of handheld puzzle-platformers is just such a game. It's good enough for what it is but you suspect an ulterior motive in its creation.

In this case, that motive is cross-platform development - something Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata spoke about last year, and that there's reason to believe is at the heart of its plans for Nintendo NX. Tipping Stars began life as a demo for a new web-based development framework, and the challenge that seems to have been set its developer NST - Nintendo's in-house American studio - is to create a visually and functionally identical game for 3DS and Wii U. Well, they can put a tick in that box: mission accomplished.

I'm still playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, months after it came out. I only came to it over Christmas, but most evenings that I pick up a controller I find myself setting out from Skyhold yet again, venturing into some wilderness or other to see what I can find. The followers I bring with me have mostly fallen silent, their dialogue exhausted after nearly 200 hours of adventuring.

But I haven't tired of the game, even though I'm still playing far beyond the point that most players feel the need to. Fans have complained that there are too many distractions on the game's world map, and you could make the point that BioWare has cluttered its own game unnecessarily. But I'm reminded of something Dragon Age: Inquisition creative director Mike Laidlaw told me a couple of weeks ago - that assuming you needed to collect every little thing in the game was a "miscalibration". You'll finish the main story with a surplus of power unless you have a real aversion to exploring - BioWare has simply populated its world with further activities for those who do want to engage with them.

Not least because the ailing soldier in question is gasping his last while leaning against his blood-soaked Chocobo steed, opening with a grimly protracted death scene is certainly one way to prove your determination to do away with the old order. It's startling to see such an icon of the series - a sacred cow, even - so cruelly slain, and it makes for an arresting start. But for Final Fantasy this is unusually bleak, we've all seen our fair share of gritty reboots before.

And yet what seems like a strong, surprising start all too soon succumbs to type. The cutscenes drag on until you're wishing the poor chap would just die already, while you're bombarded with unfamiliar terminology, such that series newcomers could be forgiven for having no idea what's going on. In short, the four nations of Orience are at war, and you play as Class Zero, an elite group of 14 cadets from a magic academy tasked with driving back the aggressors.